Rock News

Guest DJ: Jason Newsted

Metal bassist Jason Newsted is perhaps best known for playing bass with Metallica from 1986-2001. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 alongside the other members of the band - a moment in his career he describes as "victorious." Newsted has also been a part of such metal bands as Echobrain, Voivod and Flotsam and Jetsam and has also played with Ozzy Osbourne.

Currently, Jason plays bass and lends lead vocals to his new band, Newsted. Formed in December 2012, the metal outfit released their EP Metal in January 2013 - which topped the iTunes chart - and earlier this month put out their debut album, Heavy Metal Music on August 6.

Jason teamed up with iHeartRadio to Guest DJ a radio station that's perfect for him. In addition to his work, the station includes music from such bands as Mastodon, Black Sabbath and more.

Check out Jason's top ten tracks and find out why he chose them for his station below.

1. "Mastodon is the first on the top 10 list," Newsted tells iHeartRadio. "They have a track out from a couple of years ago called 'Curl of the Burl' on the record The Hunter. For me they are one of the topbands flying the flag of heavy metal true, still to this day and don't take themselves too seriously. Their music is still very heavy and very scary, but they have a tongue-in-cheek approach that keeps a real light-heartedness to it that makes it very special. I like that combination of things – heaviness and the happiness."

2. "Next one on the list is Clutch, one of the most underrated outfits of all time in my opinion as far as hard rock music goes. This song’s called '50,000 Unstoppable Watts.' They're just Gods of riffage and they don't have to be too distorted to maintain the heavy funk, and it's very cool."

3. "Next one on the list is The Sword, a band from Texas that have 3 or 4 records now and they are also flying the flag true for metal in this day and age. They tap back into the old school stuff, very serious riffage there, The Sword, 'Tres Brujas.'"

4. "For me, the originators of what we call stoner metal: it's Kyuss, with 'Un Sandpiper,' and everyone else followed in their footprints. They were Black Sabbath for the 90s and everybody else in stoner music followed them."

5. "Dozer, they're out of Sweden and the song's called 'Lightyears Ahead.' It's also slabs of down-tuned stoner metal, but probably one of the most underrated bands from Europe in this style of music."

6. "Top of the heap - they come sixth on the list, but pretty much number one for me. South American metal Gods, Selpultura, with the song 'Dead Embryonic Cells.' The riff in the middle of 'Dead Embrionic Cells' is THE coolest riff that’s been played in metal, period. And you'll know it when you hear it - wait for it at about the three minute mark in this song."

7. "Next, heroes and brothers, Voivod out of Montreal. The song is called 'The Getaway,' and that's yours truly playing base right there and one of Piggy's last masterpieces, I'll call it that."

8. "We're getting close to home with Flotsam and Jetsom, this is from the first album Doomsday for the Deceiver, it's called 'Iron Tears.' It's the third song that I composed in my career. So check that out for the origins of the music that you hear now in Heavy Metal Music, our new LP."

9. "Next on the list are the inventors, the godfathers, and the beginning of it all for any of these bands. Without this band there would've been none of these other bands that preceded them here. This is Black Sabbath with my personal favorite and probably the heaviest riff of its time, 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.'"

10. "Number 10 on the top 10 list. This is a band called Newsted, and a new single that’s firing on all cylinders right out of the gate called 'Soldierhead.'"

11. "I added number 11 right here, it's WhoCares - a project that I also played bass on with Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, Nicko McBrain from Iron Maiden, Jon Lord of Deep Purple and Ian Gillan. So that's that track right there. It was the 'when your heroes become your peers' [moment] and these are the sounds that we made from that project."